More than 10,000 homes in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are being evacuated after officials warned that the lives of people in the region could be at risk from the worst coastal tidal surge for over 60 years.

The Environment Agency (EA) has issued a number of severe flood warnings – the highest category, which are only issued when flooding poses a danger to life – to the east coast and north Wales as high tides and strong winds threatened to swamp the coastline.